Man's head, seen from below

Giambattista Tiepolo's drawing of a man's head with dark hair combed back shows the right profile in strong perspective foreshortening from below. The man has protruding cheekbones, regular arches of narrow eyebrows and a short thick beard. The way the head is shown and the facial features correspond to the appearance of the head of the man holding a shield at the foot of the throne of Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa in the fresco Apollo leads Beatrix of Burgundy as bride to Emperor Frederick Barbarossa painted on the vault of the Imperial Hall (Kaisersaal) in the Bishop's residence in Würzburg. Georg Knox, a researcher on Tiepolo's works, has established that the sketch was made in connection with work on this fresco executed in 1751. The drawing is made with black and white crayons on blue Venetian paper with a watermark depicting a mandorla (almond-shaped) two-field shield. The upper field of the shield has the letters IPA and the lower field - the letter F, four horns, and a heart. It is part of the group of works by the Tiepolo family members, the most extensive Polish collection of drawings by the distinguished and famous 18th-century Venetian artistic family.

Ewa Gwiazdowska